Ugogo email format

Ugogo, Africa's first truly global ecommerce site... Background Founded by Lisa Armstrong, a Zimbabwean entrepreneur and business woman. Ugogo was inspired by Lisa's grandmother. Hence the name; Ugogo means grandmother in both Zulu and Ndebele. Watching how her grandmother created and sold her crafts Lisa saw an opportunity to widen her grandmother's market-place by taking it online. However, this presented two challenges, her grandmother was unbanked and the poor infrastructure in Zimbabwe made the delivery of low value goods impossible. And so began the journey to create Ugogo a place where the unbanked can sell their goods online. As with Lisa's grandmother there are millions of informal crafts traders in Africa, in Kenya alone there are approximately 2 million women, providing for their families and supplementing household income through their craft. As mobile penetration continues at an astounding rate with approximately 1 billion unique subscribers on the continent, this presents an exciting opportunity for micro-businesses to come online and extend their market-place. About Ugogo Ugogo Africa is an ecommerce site designed for people without bank accounts. This site allows crafts men and women to sell their goods online but without needing traditional banking facilities such as debit or credit cards. A user can create an account and sell their goods and receive payment directly to their mobile phone in the form of cash using Ugogo's technology combined with a mobile cash system such as Mpesa. However, this system is two way allowing buyers to also purchase goods with cash via the site.